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Interview with Hayato Ishii |
Home > Designer Interviews > Hayato Ishii |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Hayato Ishii (HI) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Hayato Ishii by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
HI: When I was a child, I loved looking at the floor plans of houses in newspaper advertisements and imagining how I would live there, arranging the furniture, which was my weekly pastime on Sundays. My mother saw this and told me that there was a job in architectural design, and I became vaguely aware of architectural design. As a high school student, I was very interested in interior spaces rather than the exterior of buildings. Therefore, I wanted to take a course specialising in interior spaces as my university major. However, in Japan at that time, architecture was for men and interior space design was for women, and the course I wanted to take was for women only, so I remember feeling disappointed that I could not go on to higher education. Even now that I am an architect, I still attach great importance to the interior spaces where people actually live.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
HI: After working for three years in the design office of Daniela Puppa in Milan, I opened the studio acca first-class architectural office in Tokyo in 2004. In 2017, the firm was incorporated as studio acca Inc. The firm has been designing, supervising and designing many detached houses, villas and condominiums, etc. With the increase in the number of people seeking a new lifestyle, the number of projects at Lake Kawaguchi and Lake Biwa has increased, and we are working through trial and error with the builders to create a place that is more personal to them. We place the greatest importance on designing through dialogue with the builders, rather than creating a building as a work of art. What do they value when building a building, and what do they want to do there? By discussing these issues at length, we come up with more enjoyable ideas and propose designs and designs that we think are best for the builder.
FS: What is "design" for you?
HI: I believe that design is not only about design. In my opinion, a good design is not only beautiful in terms of design, but also well-balanced in terms of productivity, cost, and functionality. I believe that design is an essential and important thing for human beings to lead a rich life. At least, for me, it is.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
HI: I am attracted to designing spaces where people live. These include houses, holiday homes and hotels. I like to imagine people's lives. I am also attracted to designing spaces that the client can discuss with me. Of course, I am confident in my own design, but after all, I am creating a space for the client, so I want to communicate as closely as possible and get as excited as possible with each other as I design.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
HI: What I would like to design someday is a building like the Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe. It may be a little inconvenient for living, but the stable horizontal lines and the way it brings the outside environment into the interior are very interesting. However, if I were to design this building, I would think about whether it could be made of wood and glass instead of steel and glass. I would like to have a slightly more human-friendly texture. Also very interesting is the Schrader house designed by Rietveld. The idea of using partitions to identify rooms is something that only Rietveld, who also designs furniture, could come up with. This is very helpful when designing a small house in Japan.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
HI: The first building we designed was a corporate office building for a computer software company. The client had three main requirements: perfect security, consideration for the physically challenged, and visibility from the highway. In terms of security, we not only blocked material intrusion with a security system, but also blocked sight lines by using glass blocks on the walls that allow light to pass through but block sight lines. In addition, a ramp for wheelchair access was installed. The ramp, which tends to be in the shadows because of its functional priority, is placed in parallel with the stairs, which signify the connection to the next step, and was purposely adopted as the main façade. The facade of the building can be seen clearly from the highway running in front of the site, creating an outstanding advertising effect.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
HI: I like matte colored materials. And I also like materials with a textured surface rather than smooth mirrored surfaces. This is because a material with a textured surface expresses the shadows in the room very beautifully.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
HI: I think I am most creative in the moment when I make a plan for a large empty lot, imagining the surrounding environment and the client's life. Everything is a hypothetical plan based on my own imagination and assumptions, and I am always nervous when I present it to the client. Through dialogue with the client, I brush up that hypothesis and evolve it into a fixed theory that the client is really looking for.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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